Anna Faulkner, Tanya Murray and Erica Lim (pictured left to right) will be taking part in the Auckland Secondary Schools Championships after winning their events in the Counties Manukau event.
Our team of 12 took part in the Counties Manukau Athletics Championships at Mt Smart Stadium with good success. Conditions were near perfect for the first half of the day thanks to a cool, light breeze but then turned nasty just in time for the track sprint finals!
All athletes who finish 1st or 2nd in field events automatically advance to the Auckland Championships. 3rd place is named as a reserve in case of withdrawals from others. Track qualification is based on 1st/2nd from each zone plus the next 4 fastest losers from all zones.
Anna Faulkner was our first athlete underway with the Intermediate Girls 3000m. She won that comfortably and barely got out of 2nd gear.
Tanya Murray made light work of the field by throwing 500cm beyond everyone else in the shot put and about 20m better in the javelin and is already on pace for a top 5 finish at NZSS Champonships. She has a lot left in the tank too.
Zac Saunders, Erica Lin and Tristan Tualagi made the finals for the 200m and 100m; with Aerin Henry and Ysabel Corpuz making the 100m finals which were awesome achievements.
It was Erica who stole the show in the 100m (as the 4th fastest qualifier). In trying conditions (head wind and hard rain) I thought “the person who handles these conditions the best will probably win this one”. Erica stormed out of the blocks and shot out to a 5m lead in the first 40m. The other athletes began to close in on her but she managed to hold the lead to win by a fraction of a second! Intermediate Girls 100m champion! The other runners put in outstanding efforts in their finals but were unable to finish in the top places.
